Back to Cereal

Tonight we went on a family outing to Ralph's. The purpose of the trip was to utilize a coupon for a free half gallon of Breyer's ice cream when we bought a Sara Lee pound cake for $2.50. There's no passing that deal up.

As is my habit now, we also made a special trip to the day old rack. The results were disappointing, as there were only two items on the rack (and last time I went, there were none). Either someone more desperate than I has beaten me to the punch lately, or perhaps the store has adopted a new philosophy with its new renovations: if people aren't buying it, don't make as much of it.

There is another rack right next to the day old rack, though, that I don't know how else to describe other than the "Destroyed or Old But Still Good Rack." I love that rack. Tonight there were several boxes of cereal on one of the top shelves. Some of the boxes were mutilated and held together only with brown packing tape, but the inner packaging was still intact, and the Cheerios (General Mills Brand) were only $1.50 a piece. So Michelle picked up three boxes.

I was feeling pretty triumphant about our purchases, as Michelle and I remarked back and forth about we can't get ourselves to spend more than $2.00 on a box of cereal these days.

But then I saw an associate from the office I work in buying groceries too. He didn't seem to see me. I am mildly embarrassed now to admit that I quickly ducked out the way to avoid detection. It wasn't so much that I didn't want him to see me pushing the bulky red racing car shopping cart, or the fact that somehow we'd ended up with close to 10 boxes of cereal in that cart (which we blissfully justify by classifying these purchases as "food storage" on the monthly budget).

Nope, for whatever reason I just couldn't bear to have him see me proudly carting around boxes of Cheerios sloppily held together by packing tape. So I averted eye contact, pretended I needed to look at a few things down another aisle, and then waited until he was safely making his way out of the store before looking up and resuming my confident posture.

I am ashamed. But at least in my shame I still picked up three boxes of name brand Cheerios for $1.50

Not All That Wander Are Lost

I have no excuse for the long pause between entries – except that life with two kids (one of whom is a newborn and the other of whom wants to spend all his waking hours attacking the newborn with love), busy days at work, and family emergencies make things a tad more difficult. All of these things work together to tire me such that I have neither the time nor the energy to parse out mildly amusing vignettes from my daily living. And it certainly hasn’t left me energy to provide serious or insightful commentary on the days issues, or even the day’s tasty treats.

But tonight I’ve stolen a moment to let you know all is not lost. In fact, these are prosperous times for the Clark family. Consider the following:

• Michelle and I attended a firm dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse this past week. From Ethan, our waiter, we learned that Ruth’s Chris cooks their stakes at 1500 degrees Fahrenheit, and then serves its steaks on plates heated to 500 degrees. For the first, and possibly last, time I ordered a $70 Kobe steak – apparently a rare and expensive find even among steak connoisseurs [which I’ve considered adding to my already long list of specialties]. The steak was by far the best I’d ever tasted. I’m happy to go back there whenever anyone is interested in paying for it.


• I’ve got a new camera that is my pride and joy: the Canon Powershot S80. What adds more to my joy is that I got it for $380 (the going rate is about $500). We also got a new digital video camera.


• All of my Peanut M&Ms are now gone.


• NCAA 2007 came out earlier this month with rave reviews. Now if only I had a law school class or two I could skip to stay home and play it.
  
• We’re almost at the end of our summer blackout dates at Disneyland.
• The guy I bought a computer from was ordered to attend a "cognitive restructuring course" and subsequently comments on the courthouse steps that the reporters covering him are only alive because he is merciful (and obviously not crazy).

Hopefully time and circumstance will permit me to resume posting more frequently soon.